Aliens Colonial Marines Review

by Anthony Gabb

It was in 1979 that director Ridley Scott brought true horror to motion picture with his hit sci-fi/ horror movie Alien, which depicted Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as she and her crew tried hopelessly to survive against an alien species labelled a ‘Xenomorph’ that was on board their ship, The Nostromo.

Seven years later, after the success of Alien, which received numerous awards including an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Ellen Ripley returned in the movie’s sequel titled Aliens, which was under the directing care of James Cameron.

The sequel saw Ripley and a band of colonial marines travel to the planet LV-426 to wipe out a Xenomorph infestation which took hold of a human terraforming colony stationed on the planet. Aliens was also a hit, receiving seven Academy Award nominations including best actress Nomination for Sigourney Weaver, however the film only won two of the seven nominations; for Best Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.

Now with Prometheus released, a prequel to the Aliens series, the movie has ended a sixteen year drought, which saw the last Alien movie released in 1997, Alien: Resurrection.

Prometheus has also now opened up new door way for a new set of Alien movies as well as new gaming franchise.

Developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sega, Aliens Colonial Marines is set after the events of Aliens, and sees gamers take control of Cpl. Christopher Winter, a colonial marine. Your mission as a member of the search and rescue team sent to investigate the U.S.S Sulaco is to search for Ellen Ripley, Cpl. Dwayne Hicks and the rest of the colonial marines that were dispatched to LV-426.

Okay, disappointingly, Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t really an Aliens game, it plays like more of a C.O.D/Black Ops title except replaced with bent sausage headed Aliens. Not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing, however it feels like more of an action shooter rather than a game that makes you cautious about taking the next tentative step, which is a letdown because that’s the main foundation the Alien series was built on.

TheAliens are disgracefully dumber and less stealthier than in the movies, which makes the game unconvincing. As soon as you use the motion tracker to find where they are, they immediately run out and attack rather than use their stealthy ways to sneak up on their victim, which made it less appealing as there was no element of surprise.

The motion tracker is a useless device in the game and isn’t really needed, all you really need to do is walk, wait for your enemies to come out and shoot them.

The graphics are quite poor, mainly in its character features but also notably in the motion features displayed in cut scenes, which makes it unappealing and breaks the immersion.

The environments themselves feel well designed and grasp the Alien’s surroundings very well. Weapons also feel well designed and look and sound very convincing.

Levels become repetitive and prove to be no challenge. The gameplay itself is pretty straight forward, walk forwards, shoot some enemies, upgrade weapons, complete challenges, walk forward, shoot some more enemies, open a door, shoot some more enemies. Even the most hardcore Alien and shooter fans will become bored quickly .

Unfortunatley there isn’t any strategy to killing enemies. Walking and shooting is enough to get you through this game. The main campaign should take you less than six hours.

VERDICT: 2/10

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This is by far a massive disappointment for the Alien series and doesn’t even come close to being as entertaining as the films. The elements of scare and surprise are not included, gameplay is repetitive and boring and cinematic graphics are poor.

What can I say? It’s a terrible game.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is available through GameFanShop if you’re for some reason still keen for a PC version. This game was even on our Most Anticipated Games list, are there any others we should be worried about?